Alpine White Chocolate Mud Cake.

This is my first attempt at making a mud cake and also my first go at icing and decorating a cake too. Yes, okay, it was a Bakels cake mix that I was trying out. The lovely Gail from http://vipantrywedonthaveablogblog.blogspot.com sent me a kilo of the mix from her 15 kilo bail to try. Who said ready mixes are not any good? This is moist, easy, and very tasty.
Once you get over the original panic stage and work out the weights and measures (weighing eggs and water in grams for instance) it really is easy.
Then there's the choosing of chocolates to use. Some are so yellow, I ended up using Nestles as this was the palest of them all once melted and the cream added to it.


Top picture is square on.




This one is side on showing the ribbon on the side.










And this is after it had been syrup basted and
crumb iced.


















Just out of the oven. It did rise a little and cracks appeared, but these soon settled once it had cooled.
This is a truely delightful cake, and I will be buying some more mix once the Christmas holidays are over. Freezes well too.

Mango Salsa.

Mangoes, mangoes, mangoes. Oh how I love them.
Although we are very lucky in this country to have them nearly all year long, it always seems such a treat to me, to be able to buy a case of mangoes. Which I did, on Christmas Eve. The case contained 20 mangoes for only $15.00. The first five were eaten over the kitchen sink, making rather a mess of my hands and arms. So sweet and juicy, and so very yummy.

Tonight I made a mango salsa to go with leftover turkey, also had a green leaved salad, avocado and a egg and potato salad. This salsa would go well with most cold meats and a good strong cheddar cheese.

What you will need.
6 MANGO cheeks.
1 SPANISH ONION.
2 red CHILLIES.
Juice of 1 LIME.


Dice the mango and scrap from the skin into a bowl.
Dice the red onion, and the chili, really small making sure you have no pips. Add to bowl.
Squeeze the lime over the mix already in the bowl and mix well trying not to break up the mango too much.




Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
I think this would be lovely with savoury crackers and cheese as well.

Christmas/Boxing Day Menu.

5 kilos of King Prawns (Lemoned finger bowls to rinse the pinkies)
Assorted savoury biscuits and a couple of dip.
1 whole leg of Ham.
1 5.4 kilos of Turkey breast with streaky bacon and cranberry sauce.
New potatoes salad with light sour cream and chives.
Green leaved salad.
Black tomatoes. (No fiddling with these, too good as they
are) KUMATO.
Alpine white mud cake (Still have to do the final icing layer
and decorate)
Glazed fruit cake. Mr. Kiplings Mince pies. (We adore only these)
Fruit salad. (Mangoes, Pineapple, Kiwifruit, Strawberries
and green Grapes.
Fruit and marshmallows kebabs with dipping chocolate.
Assorted cheeses (Triple creamed Brie, Strong Cheddar and
a blue of some sort)

This is sort of a buffet, it will be all out in the BBQ area,
yes there is a fridge out there and a couple of eskys filled with ice too.
Also doing cocktails, Grossmutters over ice, Sex on the beach,
Between the sheets, and Death in the afternoon.
There will also be beer, red wine and white wine.
Oh, and my cuppa PG Tips.
Have I missed anything?
YES, Mince pie muffins and cherry and
coconut mini loaves. PHEW

Mince Pie Muffins.

This is the basic muffin mix again that you can find under *labels*. Either use your own Fruit Mince or do as I did and use a good quality shop bought type. Robinson's do a very good one.

2 cups S.R. FLOUR.
3/4 cup CASTOR SUGAR.
1/2 teaspoon BAKING SODA.
2 EGGS.
3/4 cup MILK.
1/2 cup RICE BRAN OIL.
1 jar FRUIT MINCE.

Mix wet ingredients together first. Sift flour and baking soda, then add to wet mix with the sugar. Don't overwork the mix now.
Preheat the oven to 180c.
Put a small amount into each muffin case (I manage to get 16 muffins with this mix.
Then add 1 teaspoon of fruit mince to each muffin and top with more muffin mix.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
When cool, dust with icing sugar.

Christmas Lights Fruit Cake.

Not too much effort put into this cake, as I am making a white chocolate mud cake for Christmas. So this is a shop bought cake by Fowlers Vacola. A deliciously moist fruit cake filled with Spiced Apples, Apricots, Peaches and Pears. I glazed it with warmed Apricot jam and decorated with glazed Oranges, glazed Pineapple, glazed Peaches and a green Cherry.
Now to get on with the over cake.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Special Fruit Cake

Ingredients

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 cup dried fruit

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup brown sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

1 cup nuts

1 bottle whisky

Method

Sample the whisky to check its quality. Take a large bowl.

Check the whisky again.

To be sure it is of the highest possible quality, pour 1 level cup and drink.

Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer.

Beat 1 cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add 1 teaspoon of sugar and beat again.

Make sure the whisky is still okay. Cry another tup.

Turn off the mixer. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stick, pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the whisky to check for tonisticity. Next, sift 2 cups of salt. Or something. Who cares? Check the whisky. Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add 1 table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find. Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees. Don’t forget to beat off the turner. Throw the bowl out of the window, check the whisky again and go to bed.

Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year too.

Thank you for the recipe Lesley! (lol)

A really exciting new blog has just been started by a dear friend of mine who lives in Sweden. Her name is Anna and the blog address is
http://semlan72.blogspot.com/
She is writing the blog in English, although this is not her first language. She writes about crafts, family and cooking/baking. The blog was only started a few days ago, and already there are 8 posts there.
Well done Anna. Please come and get your award from me. Look forward very much, to reading a lot more on your blog. Keep up the excellent work.

Bread pudding.

This recipe comes from my Mum's kitchen. She had made it just before I visited last. We had it as a cake, but should be eaten warmed with custard. Will give you her recipe first, and then tell you what I did.

Bread Pudding.

250 grams STALE WHITE BREAD. (crusts removed)
50 grams UNSALTED BUTTER (melted)
50 grams SUGAR.
1 tsp. GRATED NUTMEG.
1/2 tsp. MIXED SPICE.
2 tablesps. BITTER ORANGE MARMALADE.
100 grams MIXED DRIED FRUIT.
1 large EGG.
MILK. (Just a little, you may not need)

Break the bread into small pieces and put into
a mixing bowl. Pour over enough water to cover and let stand for 30 minutes.
In another bowl, mix together butter, sugar,spices, marmalade, fruit and egg.
Drain the bread and squeeze to remove excess water. Now add the soaked bread to the other mixture. Add the milk now, if a little dry, needs to be a sticky consistency.
Put mixture into a greased 18 cm square cake tin and bake at 180c for 1-1 1/4 hours or until firm.
The chances I made.
Used fruit loaf and forgot to cut off crusts,
but this did not matter.
Used dark brown sugar.
Used sultanas and pitted prunes.
Needed no milk.
This smelted so Christmasy to me,
and ours has been eaten cold.

Thank you.

I started this blog mainly 'cos I was talked into it by a few friends over on the forum I belong (Violet's Pantry, members only.) Got excited about taking photographs of my food and baking, and before I knew it, I was totally hooked.
Am a bit proud really, as I have just passed a milestone. 10,000 visitors. It's THANKS to Food Porn Sites like RECIPE MUNCHER, TASTESPOTTING, PHOTOGRAZING, FOODGAWKER and NEWTASTINGS. And the girls from the forum (George, Granny, Emmcee, Coby, Vicky, Maria, Kerryanne, Kerry, Linda and Violet) there's many more too, that spur me on. Thank you all, please take the flowers and put them on your blogs, as a gift from me.

Another son, another birthday cake.

The same simple chocolate cake, which you can find here http://pinkbytes.blogspot.com/2008/11/birthday-cake.html but this time, I sandwiched the two layers together with Nutella. (Second sons' favorite sandwich filling) and then made a Carob butter icing and spread that over the top, and dressed it with Maltesers.
Thankfully, every one in my home loves all types of chocolate, including the two dogs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NUMBER TWO SON.

Christmas Hedgehog.

There are so many parties and Christmas do's on at this time of year, but in this hot weather it is very difficult to do something that will keep, be tasty and festive. So when I was asked to the local betting clubs Christmas do and they said "Bring a plate" This was my answer.
Which I have named THE CHRISTMAS HEDGEHOG.
I got hold of a seedless watermelon this morning that weighed six kilos. The man in the fruit and veg shop, kindly cut it in half for me.
I washed the outer skin and then lightly rubbed some olive oil on the skin, and sprinkled it with gold edible sprinkles. Like a gold dust really.
One kilo of Cabanosi sliced.
One kilo of Cheddar cheese, cut in to cubes.
One fresh Pineapple, peeled cored and sliced.
Two jars of red Cocktail Onions.
Two jars of green Cocktail Onions.
Two hundred cocktail sticks.
Load three different things on to the stick, making sure you have the red and green onions at the top, or the pineapple and proceed to load up the watermelon.
This was a lot of fun to make, and everybody at the party enjoyed eating it too.
If anybody knows it's true name, I would be very grateful to hear from you. Until then, I shall call it my Christmas Hedgehog. Such a cute and lovable little animal. (We don't have them in Australia, arhhhhhhh!)

First Anniversary

Happy first anniversary to a busy blogger LINDA @
http://wwwthinkingaboutfood.blogspot.com/
A lovely informative foodie blog. Do visit her and leave a message.

Three Cheeses' and Pickled Onion Muffins.

Yes, more muffins. This time I wanted to use up some cheeses' I had in the fridge. Mersey Valley Vintage Cheddar with pickled onions, being one of them. Parmesan being another, as I had managed to get hold of a large block from the deli and dear hubby had grated it for me. Also, some good old fashioned Cheddar cheese. Now, if you can't get the Mersey Valley cheese, just add more cheddar.

The recipe..

2 cups S.R. FLOUR. (Sifted)
1/2 cup RICE BRAN OIL.
3/4 cup MILK.
2 EGGS.
1 cup CHEDDAR CHEESE (Grated)
1/2 cup of MERSEY VALLEY VINTAGE CHEDDAR (Pickled Onions) (Chopped)
1/2 cup PARMESAN (Grated)
4 large PICKLED ONIONS (Sliced and diced)
2 SPRING ONIONS (Sliced finely)

Method..

Preheat oven to 180c. Prepare muffin tray by greasing.
Mix the wet ingredients together, add the sifted flour. Then stir in the three cheeses, spring onions and pickled onions.
If you feel the mix is a little dry, add a touch more milk and oil.
Fill the muffin tray holes to 3/4 full.
Bake in the oven for 20 -25 minutes, or until golden brown.
The aroma coming from the oven, will drive you mad. These are truly very tasty.
I have frozen half of mine (6) and can be warmed in the microwave for a few seconds, once defrosted.
Do hope you enjoy.